Pablo Picasso Spanish, 1881-1973
Picasso first explored the figure of the Minotaur in 1928, in a collage enhanced with gouache entitled Running Minotaur. The image is perfectly in line with Picasso's obsession with bullfighting and ancient mythology. But it was not until the 1930s that the theme took on greater significance, with the commission for the Vollard Suite. The Suite of 100 prints is permeated by several major themes: the Artist, his Model and Studio, and the Minotaur. Dating back to ancient Greece, the figure of the Minotaur is a paradoxical one: half-man, half-bull, fragile and tragic, animalistic pleasure and tenderness. In Picasso's bestiary, populated by real animals as well as fantastical creatures such as fauns and bacchantes, the Minotaur obsessed Picasso. Was it a mise en abîme of the artist or his intimate double?
At the time of the creation of the Vollard Suite, Picasso was in love with Marie-Thérèse while trying to maintain his marriage to Olga Khokhlova. The figure of the Minotaur, a hybrid, was perhaps a way of reconciling his contradictory emotions, between love, desire, and rage. Unlike other representations of the Minotaur in the Vollard Suite, which show the monster at the moment of his death or lost in carnal scenes, here the Minotaur becomes full of tenderness. The figure of the sleeping woman watched by a voyeur is another recurring theme in Picasso's work, as the artist liked to watch his companions sleep while working at night.
The contrast between the calm beauty of the woman and the beastly nature of the Minotaur is rendered by the density of the engraved lines. The Minotaur's savage head, leaning over Marie-Thérèse's fair face, dominates the space of the engraving. Nevertheless, a tension remains in the scene, as in another famous plate from the Vollard Suite, “Faun Unveiling a Sleeping Woman,” the monster's intention still ambiguous despite his tenderness.
© Succession Picasso 2026
Provenance
Ambroise Vollard, ParisHenri-Marie Petiet Collection, Paris, acquired upon the death of the former in 1939.
Estate of Henri-Marie Petiet
Exhibitions
Picasso et la Méditerrannée : Rome (Italie), Académie de France à Rome - Villa Medicis, 27 novembre 1982-13 février 1983 / Athènes (Grèce), National Gallery, Pinacothèque nationale Alexandros Soutzos Museum, 14 mars 1983-29 mai 1983Picasso gravures 1900-1942 : Paris (France), Musée national Picasso, 29 octobre 1996-20 janvier 1997 Picasso graveur : New York (États-Unis), The Museum of Modern Art, 19 septembre 1997-04 janvier 1998.
Picasso, love anguish Guernica's genesis : Tokyo (Japon), Tobu Museum of Art, 31 octobre 1995-17 décembre 1995 / Kyoto (Japon), National Museum of Modern Art, 31 octobre 1995-17 décembre 1995.
Picasso érotique: Paris (France), Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 19 février -20 mai 2001 / Montréal (Canada), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, 14 juin -16 septembre 2001 / Barcelone (Espagne), Museu Picasso, 15 octobre 2001-27 janvier 2002.
Des taureaux et des femmes: Nîmes (France), Musée des Cultures Taurines, 29 mai -02 novembre 2003 Dialogues. Métamorphoses : Moscou (Fédération de Russie), The State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, 29 novembre 2004-29 janvier 2005.
Exposition Erotica : Rio de Janeiro (Brésil), Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil do Rio de Janeiro, 12 octobre 2005-08 janvier 2006.
Picasso : Helsinki (Finlande), Ateneum Art Museum, 18 septembre 2009-06 janvier 2010.
A Picasso Portfolio, Prints from the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New-York, 24 mars - 6 septembre 2010.
Olga Picasso : Paris (France), Musée national Picasso-Paris, 21 mars 2017-03 septembre 2017 / Moscou (Fédération de Russie), The State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, 19 novembre 2018-04 février 2019 / Málaga (Espagne), Museo Picasso Málaga, 25 février 2019-02 juin 2019 / Madrid (Espagne), Caixa Forum Madrid, 18 juin 2019-22 septembre 2019.
La Suite Vollard (Picasso-Méditerranée) : Cannes (France), Centre d'art La Malmaison, 17 novembre 2017-29 avril 2018.
Picasso Nocturne, Musée national Picasso-Paris, 26 mars 2019-14 juillet 2019.
Courbet/Picasso. Révolutions : Ornans (France), Musée Courbet, 01 juillet 2021-15 octobre 2021, ill. cat. p. 111, n°16.
Picasso on paper : Londres (Royaume-Uni), Royal Academy of Arts, 25 janvier 2020-02 août 2020 / Cleveland (États-Unis), The Cleveland Museum of Art, 07 décembre 2024-23 mars 2025.
Literature
Georges Bloch, Pablo Picasso, Catalogue de l’oeuvre gravé et lithographié 1904-1967, Berne, Editions Kornfeld et Klipstein, 1968, p. 68, n°201.Brigitte Baer, Picasso Peintre-Graveur. Tome II, Editions Kornfeld, 1989, p. 181, n°369.